First, every six weeks, on Tuesdays, are transfers in Allison's mission. This is when the Mission President decides which companions stay together or get switched, and if switched, who moves to which area within the mission. Not all missionaries are switched and moved each transfer - usually a missionary is moved to a new area every 4-6 months and stay with the same companion every 2-3 months. This past Tuesday were transfers.
Second, every Monday is Preparation Day aka P-Day. This is the one day a week when missionaries take care of temporal needs - do laundry, go grocery shopping, clean apartments, go sightseeing, write home, recreational fun, etc. The rest of the week is focused on serving others and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, when transfer week comes around, all missionaries in the mission take their P-Day on Tuesday rather than Monday so those moving or getting switched use that P-Day to pack up and move to their new areas and get settled without losing a day of doing the Lord's work.
Why all this - well Allison's email came late this past week which is causing this blog post to get done late. Sorry to the regular readers and just know every six weeks, the blog will be late. Oh - I'm having to do more and more editing too. Allison's emails have horrid spelling and grammar now - which only means her spanish is getting much better! And now, here is the latest from our Hermana Allison Scarlett :)
So today was the big day of transfers! (Drumroll pleaseeeeee) WE ARE STAYING IN CONGRESO!!!!! Last night we got the call that all 4 of us Hermanas are staying here in Congreso. We are all SUPER stoked (excited). We feel like we have so much more work to do here and we are ready to hit the ground running and have some miracles happen these next 6 weeks.
As for this past week we have been working really well with the less-active members. We´ve visited Andres and Milagros who are awesome :) We were visiting with them but their cuadra (city block) didn´t have energy (electricity) so we were sitting around 2 candles in their living room talking and mentioned that transfers were this week. Milagros said "we don't want you to leave. You´re our missionaries." Oh man my heart just melted! We´ve challenged them to read the Libro de Mormon (The Book of Mormon) in one year. I told them that I read it in 2 months, so they can do it in 12 months :) They are just super great! I´m going to miss them when I eventually leave Congreso.
Another less-active member we´re working with is Alfredo Morrency. He´s a super tall, skinny man from Haiti. He´s in his mid 30s but totally looks like he´s early 20s. He served a mission there in Haiti and is here in Buenos Aires studying and working. We had a really good chat/lesson with him and he came to church on Sunday. He´s a very calm super nice guy and we´re excited for our next visit with him this afternoon!
We are also working with Jose Navarro. He´s 24, from Colombia, and is here studying and living with 2 of his friends. He wants to serve a mission and go to the temple along with many other big goals. We´re helping him to do the little things that he needs to do, such as reading the scriptures, going to church, paying tithing, in order to achieve his big goals. He has such a big desire and he´s so dang busy! Everyone is so dang busy here! But we can see him doing great things. But by small and simple things do great things come to pass.
Also, we have the Familia Miño. They usually come the first hour of church and then leave because the son who has the car doesn't want to stay. We've been working with them and especially their other son, Freddie. He is such a goofy guy. He is so animated always having something to say and it´s never boring when he´s around. We were meeting with their family and we were talking about doing the good things and he was like "Well I'm not a bad person. I don´t going around doing bad things." Then he looked at me and said "What do you think?" SO I said, "NO, you´re not a bad person, but we can always do better. For example, before my mission I didn't read my scriptures EVERY day." Everyone gasped - It was really funny! I continued, "But now that I'm reading every day I've seen all the blessings it´s bringing into my life and realized all of the blessings I missed out on before because I wasn't being exactly obedient. Heavenly Father blesses us according to our obedience. Now that I know these things I´m going to read my scriptures every day in order to receive those blessings. It´s not that you´re doing bad things. It´s just that there are always better things you can be doing." He is now coming with us on our visits and he got his family to come to church and stay all 3 hours which was a MIRACLE! And he really enjoyed himself and he is really going strong and is just a fireball right now! It´s quite amazing to see.
Friday night the ward had a Christmas activity and it was super great! The youth decorated the church and it was absolutely beautiful! Lots of members, less-actives, and non-members were all there together fellowshipping and coming together for the holidays. They cooked asado, which is argentine barbecue and it´s LA MEJOR (THE BEST)! Andres and Milagros came and they really enjoyed themselves. It really brought the ward closer together and I feel like many good things are going to come from that night. We are working on strengthening our relationships with the members in the ward (a ward is the local congregation) and strengthening the ward so that we can all work together to crecer la obra misional aca en Congreso (to grow the missionary work here in Congreso) and I´m so happy and so excited to be a part of it for at least one more transfer. Miracles are going to happen, i can feel it.
Love you all!
Hermana Scarlett
No comments:
Post a Comment